No journalist should live in fear

The freedom and safety of journalists are on our minds this week. KTN Senior Reporter Duncan Khaemba recounted his traumatic experience of harassment by the police and members of the public while covering the 2017 elections. He did this at a media forum organised last Wednesday by the Media Council of Kenya and media development organisation, Internews.
Similar cases have been reported many times. Police, government officials and citizens have assaulted reporters on account of their work. “We are reaching a point where we might be like Somalia, the most dangerous place on earth to work as a journalist,” Khaemba said. “These incidents are rising day by day and getting complicated,” said Lydia Gachungi, the UNESCO regional expert on safety of journalists and media development. Red flag! An environment of intolerance and repression appears to be taking root in Kenya.

It doesn’t start with random, angry individuals or communities attacking the media for coverage they don’t like. No. When people in power attempt to delegitimize the media by attacking journalists or other voices that check the State, misguided members of the public tend to take the cue and do the same –or worse. No journalist in Kenya should live in fear because of his or her work.

The Media Council of Kenya has the mandate to resolve conflicts arising from media coverage. Any aggrieved citizen or group should file a complaint with the Council. Like all other professions, our journalism has its own highs and lows. But nothing journalists or media houses do, or fail to do, should ever justify any form of violence against them. As journalists strive to inform citizens, the government must take seriously its constitutional obligation to protect media freedom and freedom of expression.

Protecting these freedoms includes guaranteeing the safety of journalists. When a government fails to guarantee the basic rights of its citizens, that government delegitimizes itself in the eyes of its own people and the world. When a spokesman in the Presidency threatens a journalist on record and no action is taken, then there is a big problem.
See you Monday!